Diversity Initiative 2022: Lloyd Freeman - The Legal Intelligencer

Lloyd Freeman, Buchanan's Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer, was recognized with The Legal Intelligencer's 2022 Diversity Initiative Award. 

As part of our intentional hiring strategy, driven by Freeman in concert with our chief talent officer, in 2021, 35% of hires came from underrepresented groups; of those 53% are women and 18% are women of color. The firm achieved Mansfield Certification Plus Status each year since the pilot, including in 2021. In addition, the firm achieved a score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's 2022 Corporate Equality Index for the sixth year in a row. In addition, Freeman also plays a key role in ensuring diversity in partner promotions. We are proud to have our first female Black shareholder following the recent promotions cycle.

The firm also engaged clients and forged community partnerships in an effort to collaborate on critical issues. For example, during the firm's summer associate program, each associate is paired with a firm client or a participating corporation for a two-week period, giving each of the participants additional experience and mentorship opportunities directly from corporate legal counsel.

As we worked to further engage our employees, clients and community in important conversations and expand our diversity and inclusion education, we organized a series of internal workshops, various training sessions for our employees and external programs on topics such as implicit bias, emotional intelligence and bias in evaluations, promotions and compensation, the role of white male allies in corporate America, the importance of supplier diversity, confronting the prejudice and violence against Asian-Americans and many more. Each external program averaged approximately 300 attendees.